Elmyra Duff
Elmyra Duff is a cartoon character from the Warner Bros. animated television series, Tiny Toon Adventures. She is one of the main characters on the show. Elmyra is voiced by Cree Summer in all of her appearances. Biography Elmyra is a young, redheaded female human, who wears a white pleated skirt, a light blue blouse with white collar and frills, a light blue bowed ribbon in her hair that has an gerbil's skull in the middle, black strapped Mary Jane shoes and white socks. She attends Acme Looniversity and lives in Acme Acres. She also serves as the school nurse. Elmyra Duff is based superficially on her name derivative and mentor, Elmer Fudd; "Elmyra" being a female form of "Elmer" and her last name, "Duff," as "Fudd" pronounced backwards. According to creator, Tom Ruegger, she also got her first name from his next door neighbor in Northridge, CA; an elderly lady named Elmyra Lamb. Elmyra strongly resembles a younger version of the feminized Elmer Fudd from the 1946 cartoon, The Big Snooze, in which Elmer's peaceful retirement dream became a nightmare where he was transformed into a shapely female by Bugs Bunny. She behaves quite a bit like Little Suzie, a child from a fairly obscure 1955 Freleng short called A Kiddie's Kitty. Here a girl adopts Sylvester Pussycat and unwittingly abuses him with her childish antics, to the point that he decides he would rather take his chances with a bulldog who had been tormenting him earlier in the picture. Elmyra lives in a nice, suburban home with her parents, older sister and two younger brothers. The place is fairly average except for the piles of discarded pet toys littering the yard and the several abandoned doghouses and kitty baskets. Elmyra's pets are constantly escaping in terror. One of the animals in her vast menagerie is Byron Basset, a near-gelatinous basset hound who draws much of his humor from his odd appearance. In contrast to her other pets, Byron seems to feel a grudging love for his owner despite her flaws, particularly proven in the ending to the A Cat's Eye View episode segment, Little Dog Lost. Li'l Sneezer is also shown to be one of the few "pets" capable of enduring Elmyra's well intentioned zeal, but in these cases it is Elmyra who ends up the victim because of Sneezer's allergies. Less enthusiastic pets have included Buster, Furrball, Fifi La Fume and Tyrone the Turtle. Although, Furrball is shown in some episodes to enjoy living with Elmyra (especially in latter episodes where he becomes more of a permanent resident at her home). Personality Elmyra is quite young and obsessed with animals and cute things (which is probably why she works as a nurse at Acme Looniversity), even chasing after animals whom she knows are her classmates at Acme Looniversity, obliviously causing great discomfort or serious injury to potential pets from her overenthusiastic affection and complete lack of even the most rudimentary knowledge of pet care. In this, she is reminiscent of the aforementioned Suzie, or even Hugo the Abominable Snowman (who, in turn, is influenced by Lenny from Of Mice and Men). This is in contrast to Elmer's well-armed actual intent to violence, although she is dismissed by Buster and Babs Bunny in the pilot as extremely lame for a "villain." The two share a distinct similarity in that both hunt animals; while Elmer hunts them for sport, Elmyra hunts them to love and baby them to death (sometimes literally) -- often even diapering the animals (such as Plucky in the Pollution Solution episode segment, No Deposit, No Return of the Trash Bag Dispenser). She does not really mean to mistreat her pets, she simply doesn't understand the negative effects of her behavior. Curiously, on a few occasions, Elmyra is shown to be bald like her inspiration and wearing a wig (although, whether or not she is really bald or if this is simply cartoon humor at its most absurd is up for debate). This danger is balanced by her complete and utter gullibility. Her abject stupidity is pocked with occasional instances of cleverness and her character is toned down as needed. Buster Bunny and Babs Bunny explain in the series' debut that Elmyra is a pushover — unlike Montana Max — but that they need nominal "villains" to pitch their series. This is a nod to the original Looney Tunes shorts, in which Yosemite Sam (the basis for Montana Max) was created due to the fact that Elmer J. Fudd was seen as too easy and mild-mannered to be an effective enemy for Bugs Bunny. At heart, Elmyra is a sweet girl and somewhat a major dunce (in the Acme Cable TV episode sketch, Toonywood Squares, it shows that mayonnaise has a higher I.Q. than her), she speaks in semi-perpetual baby talk and her hair bow is decorated with a small gerbil skull, which may hint at her sinister side (some fans believe that the skull in her bow is the skull of her very first pet, who died when she was little). Elmyra sometimes removes the skull to tell Mr. Skullhead stories. She has a deep love for animals, but generally cuddles and loves them to death (literally). She leaves a trail of destruction wherever she goes. Elmyra means well, but she is oblivious to the trouble she causes. Anyone who allows her to help them is courting sure disaster. She has rare moments when she's semi-aware that things haven't gone as she'd planned; usually when a pet runs away from her or someone shouts at her for goofing something up. Then, Elmyra bursts into heartbreaking sobs. Elmyra thinks life is "cute," and she has "cutesy" names for everything: Rabbits are "hippity-hops," Plucky is "Mr. Quack Quack"... et cetera. She is sweet to the point of dementia. One of the few characters that Elmyra doesn't think is cute and cuddly is Hamton J. Pig, as she thinks he's a dirty "piggie-wiggie" in need of a good bath, which is ironic, because Hamton is obsessed with cleanliness and dislikes filth and bad odors. Although Elmyra is normally a recurring antagonist in the series, she is the main protagonist in the Fox Trot episode segment, Can't Buy Me Love, where she is bullied by her new neighbor, Rhoda Queen. Although Elmyra is determined to be her best friend, Rhoda bullies her by having her do whatever she says, with the constant threat of breaking up with her if she refuses. Elmyra is forced to sacrifice her skull-donned bow, all the money in her piggy bank, and even her boyfriend, Montana Max, but when Rhoda wants her to give up Furrball, Elmyra, having put up with her all day, refuses to do so, leaving Rhoda angry and in tears. Elmyra then talks to Furrball about the morale of the story, in which you don't have to give up all your stuff just to make a new friend, but Rhoda arrives and promises Elmyra she'll be her best friend again if she gives up her mom's car keys and drive her to Utah (which Elmyra instantly agrees to).